Research
Is kindness science? It can be! There is some evidence that being kind can make a real difference to the well-being and health of individuals who practice it and receive it. Find the latest kindness research here.
In this video, Ron Gutman, founder and CEO of Health Tap, reviews a raft of studies about smiling, and reveals some surprising results. Did you know your smile can be a predictor of how long you'll live -- and that a simple smile has a measurable effect on your overall well-being? Prepare to flex a few facial muscles as you learn more about this evolutionarily contagious behavior.
New York Times Op-ed columnist David Brooks writes on why, scientifically, nice guys can and do finish first.
Read the full article here.
Need a little inspiration? Read Jen Angel's article in Yes Magazine titled 10 Things Science Says Will Make You Happy. Her ten suggestions are based on research done by the father-son team Ed Diener and Robert Biswas-Diener, Stanford psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky, and ethicist Stephen Post. Combined, they have studied people all over the world to find out how things like money, attitude, culture, memory, health, altruism, and day-to-day habits affect one's well-being. Their research has created this list of ten things you can do to be happy.
Read the article here.
The Human Thriving Foundation was initiated in 2009 to disseminate the findings, the discoveries, as well as the innovations from Happiness360. In their first five-years of scientific inquiry, Happiness360 had concentrated 100% of its revolutionary effort and time (approximately 15,000 hours) in designing, conducting and analyzing 17 rigorous research projects. The Human Thriving Foundation's proprietary investigation discovered a group of 13-human behaviors, that as a tightly-held group, predict happiness at over a 92% probability. These behaviors include: social support group, work-life balance, volunteerism, spirituality, hobbies, leisure time, music, intimacy, donating, exercise, touching, preventative health and random acts of kindness.
Learn more by visiting: www.happiness360.org
Need some motivation? Need a little zap of happiness? Check out 9 Things You Can Do to Be Happy in the Next 30 Minutes by Gretchen Rubin. It is full of surprising ways to instantly improve your mood.
Read the full article here.
A study by Oregon State University researchers found that Positive Action®, a program that teaches social and emotional skills and character development to elementary school children, can improve academic test scores as much as 10 percent on national standardized math and reading tests.
Read the full article.
Or visit the Positive Action website to learn more.
Read this article by Lauren E. Miller to learn more about how random acts of kindness and an attitude of gratitude can help reduce the stress in your life. IMiller, herself a breast cancer survivor, publishes a free e-newsletter that offers quick and easy stress relief tips. Just visit www.laurenemiller.com to sign up for the newsletter and to learn more.
Studies show that practicing random acts of kindness improves your overall mental health in addition to benefiting the ones you gift. This article by KJ Mullins highlights the mental health benefits you receive by simply being kind.
Read the full article: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/247960
This article by Cheryl Strayed offers some wonderful research supporting the power of kindness in one's life, and how at times one needs to actively pursue happiness in order to find it. Cheryl quotes Sonja Lyubomirsky, Ph.D. and Claire Wheeler, M.D., both of whom are renowned authors in the fields of kindness and positive thinking.
Click here to read the full article!
In this article in Scientific American, a psychologist probes how altruism, evolution and neurobiology mean that we can succeed by not being cutthroat. David DiSalvo interviews Dacher Keltner, director of the Social Interaction Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. Click on the link below to read the full article!
